In WHY RELIGION? A Personal Story, ELAINE PAGELS weaves what she's learned about religion with her own experience responding to dual tragedies that took place 25 years ago – the death of her young son, followed a year later by the death of her husband. She asks, Why is religion still around in the twenty-first century? How do traditions still shape the way people - whether religious or not - experience everything from sexuality to politics? Finally, can religion help us get through the most difficult challenges we face?

Too often when we read about immigrant children, they are being torn from their parents' arms or blamed for lawlessness. Sisters Constance Touey & Jeannette Lucey met in 1984 when they were both assigned to a parish K-8 school in inner city Philadelphia. DO IT BETTER: How the Kids of St. Francis de Sales Exceeded Everyone's Expectations tells remarkable stories of their 30+ years as principal and 8th grade teacher as they worked to educate and transform the lives of wave after wave of poor immigrant children. I'm proud to have written it with them.

How are we doing by our kids? School and college budgets shrink. Teacher strikes are on the rise. College debt is crippling. Children are separated from their parents. I check in with DAVID KIRP, Professor at UC Berkeley. His books include THE SANDBOX INVESTMENT and KIDS FIRST. We talk about innovative programs that work and could make a big difference. If only we cared.

CORY DOCTOROW, has a lot to say about human nature, society, and technology. He writes speculative fiction - YA best-seller LITTLE BROTHER, and most recently the novel, WALKAWAY and graphic novel IN REAL LIFE. As a technology expert and activist, he’s co-editor of Boing Boing.net, a special consultant to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and an MIT Media Lab Research Affiliate. Learn more at craphound.com. I suspect we’ll just scratch the surface.

Photo: jonathanworlth.com

As the government shutdown continues and 800,000 federal workers suffer along with asylum seekers caught by the President’s anti-immigrant actions, listen to my interview from last February with ALI NOORANI, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum and author of THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD: How Communities Overcome Prejudice and Meet the Challenge of American Immigration. You can learn more at ali-noorani.com and immigrationforum.org where you can link to Ali’s podcast, Only In America.

BILLY WIMSATT, is the founder and executive director of Movement Voter Project, which offers a clear break from the tired and true strategy of electoral politics - big donors, big consultants, and big TV ad buys. MVP helps progressive donors move some of their money to support the best local community-based organizations in key states - organizations alive on the ground 365 days a year, whether there’s an election or not. In 2018, they moved more than $13M to 350+ groups in 42 states - in almost every competitive US House, Senate, Governors race and ballot measure. You can learn more at movement.vote.

In his newest book, We the People: A Progressive Reading of the Constitution for the 21st Century, ERWIN CHEMERINSKY, Dean of Berkeley Law, makes the case that the right has since the 1970s developed and enacted a clear vision of constitutional interpretation. He calls on progressives to fight back with an alternative vision based on fulfilling the Constitution’s promise of liberty and justice for all.

Investigative reporter GREG PALAST (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) has been exposing GOP dirty tricks and voter suppression since 2000. Listen for the latest in the mid-terms in Georgia, Florida, and elsewhere - and how to fight back.

As Trump cronies are caught up in Mueller’s dragnet, let’s look at how justice works for regular folks. 2006 documentary AFTER INNOCENCE tells the stories of wrongly convicted prisoners exonerated and freed by DNA evidence. My guests include: JESSICA SANDERS, Director, Producer, Writer; MARC SIMON, Producer, Writer, and a former attorney with the Innocence Project; HERMAN ATKINS, exonerated and released in 2001 after 13 years in prison; DENNIS MAHER, exonerated and released in 2003 after 19 years in prison; and J W CARNEY who prosecuted Maher.

While elections matter, a vital society demands much more. In How Change Happens: Why Some Social Movements Succeed While Others Don't, LESLIE CRUTCHFIELD examines some movements that have succeeded — from tobacco control and gun rights expansion, to marriage equality and acid rain reduction — as well as recent campaigns that haven’t - like Occupy Wall Street, controlling C02 emissions, and gun violence prevention. Her research identifies six practices linked to success. We’ll explore them so you can put them to work.